


Shying Away

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family Shenanigans, Karaoke, M/M, Pre-Relationship, leo listens to metal covers of 80s synthpop music, takumi is a tenor you can't tell me otherwise, there wont be much of actual romance sorry guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 17:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11674197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The Corrin and Kamui twins organize a royal siblings karaoke night and Leo sings "Take On Me".





	Shying Away

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written at 2 am while listening to various versions of “Take On Me”, so viewer discretion is advised.  
> I do suggest you have “Take On Me” playing while reading this though, it really heightens the experience  
> [This cover](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNcGTmnXUbY) is how I imagined Leo singing it ish

So far, karaoke night was actually much more fun than what Leo had anticipated. He had been initially grumpy about it (mostly because he got pulled out of his room while he was in the middle of a very interesting book), but he was admittedly enjoying himself.

Corrin and Kamui had decided to get the two families together for the first time in a while, since it was the first weekend in a while where everyone had time to spare. It was interesting to see each person’s characteristics reflecting (or contrasting) in their song choices.

Camilla started off the night with a Maroon 5 song that everyone instinctively sang along to. After Xander finished singing his melancholic ballads, the twins followed it up with energetic songs that made everyone recover their excitement. Hinoka mostly chose rock songs, many of them which Leo knew the lyrics to by heart.

He once met eye contact with Takumi while mouthing the words to “How Far We’ve Come”, and Takumi gave him a knowing look with a smirk on his face. Leo didn’t dare to open his mouth again after that.

Sakura usually just joined in whatever song Elise chose, but she did choose a few songs for the two of them to sing. Their selection consisted of a variety of genres, including old and new pop songs, hip hop – Sakura was surprisingly good at rapping – and some anime openings. The contrast between Sakura’s fluent Japanese and Elise’s poor attempt at the language was pretty funny (although Leo himself couldn’t criticize his little sister for butchering the pronunciations).

After Ryoma finished his song, the machine became silent instead of moving on to the next song like it usually did.

“Oh, is that the end of the queue?”

“Okay, who wants to take this turn?”

Leo was expecting Elise to take up the opportunity, so he wasn’t surprised when she quickly stood up and raised her hand. Ryoma was about to hand the mic to her when she, much to Leo’s surprise, shook her head. “I was actually gonna suggest that Leo go next because he hasn’t sung a single song so far! Look at his grouchy face. He needs the stage.”

Leo raised an eyebrow at her.

Before they left the house, Elise had told him that she had a plan for Leo to charm Takumi, so she was probably going to make him sing a cheesy love song or something. But he had no reason to comply to her, did he?

“Elise, I don’t–”

“Did you guys know that Leo can hit all the high notes of ‘Take On Me?’”

He did not expect _that_.

When he stared at her with disbelief, Elise giggled with delight. “I caught him singing along to a metal cover of the song. I was surprised that he actually managed to sing it pretty well!”

Leo looked at the corner of the marble table in front of him and considered throwing his head onto it. Maybe he’d hit his head hard enough to die.

Elise could be clever when she wanted to be – most of the time it was when she wanted to make Leo’s life miserable. He hadn’t thought she’d pique the interest of the others with that. Now he had nine pairs of expectant eyes on him instead of one.

After an extensive internal debate on whether to keep his ground or not, Leo eventually gave in and took the mic from Ryoma, trying his best to not feel intimidated by the loud cheering behind him. He wanted to stay seated to cling onto what was left of his dignity, but Elise pushed him off the couch and forced him to stand up.

“You’ll need your full vocal capacity for this, sitting won’t help!” Elise chirped with a huge smile on her face. She feigned innocence, but Leo saw the devil she was underneath her mask of a child.

Now with zero dignity left, Leo decided to might as well give it his best. If he was going to sing it, he was going to sing it well.

As the intro of the song began, Leo realized that having an audience was actually absolutely nerve-wracking. He had never sung in front of another person besides Elise accidentally listening in on his self indulgent home-alone singing sessions. It didn’t help that Elise had hyped them up with her testament, so he was actually expected to do well – not that he was planning not to, but it was hard to ignore how tight his throat felt.

He tried to shake off his tenseness by focusing on the upbeat instrumental and swaying a bit along to the beat. He managed to crack a smile when Corrin and Kamui dramatically turned their heads in sync at the “da-ran” part of the beginning.

Seeing the others already swinging their heads to the song eased him up a bit (and man, was he thankful that the intro was so long), but his voice still slightly trembled as he sung the first lines.

 

_We’re talking away_

_I don’t know what I’m to say_

_I’ll say it anyway_

_Today’s another day to find you_

_Shying away_

_I’ll be coming for your love, okay?_

 

Leo grimaced, frustrated that he couldn’t keep his nerves under control. He hadn’t missed any notes yet, but with this rate of shaking he wouldn’t have enough air in his lungs for the climax.

Unlike the intro, the first verse ended far too quickly. As he sang the first “take on me”, Leo barely managed to collect his breath enough to hit the three successive high notes.

 

_Take on me (take on me)_

_Take me on (take on me)_

_I’ll be gone_

_In a day or two_

 

He accepted the surprised expressions and applauds with a grin, but admittedly, he was drained from the effort it took to get through that part. The rest of the song was going to be a challenge. It didn’t help that the song didn’t give him a break as it immediately moved on to verse 2.

 

_So needless to say_

_Of odds and ends_

_But that’s me stumbling away_

_Slowly learning that life is okay_

 

He instinctively glanced at Takumi, who had been watching comparatively quietly. He wasn’t going to get anything out of looking at him, so what was the point?

But it seemed that that quick glance had acted as some sort of motivator. Takumi abruptly stood up and grabbed the second mic from the table and joined Leo at the front.

There was excited cheering from the audience as Takumi held up a finger to Leo and finished the rest of the second verse.

 

_Say after me_

_It’s no better to be safe than sorry_

 

Leo watched intently as Takumi started building up his notes. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the challenging look he gave him. Watching Takumi sing brought great joy to Leo, firstly because of the fact that Takumi was _singing_ , and secondly because he had a really pretty voice (although Takumi would probably disapprove of using “pretty” as the adjective to describe his voice).

 

_Take on me (take on me)_

_Take me on (take on me)_

_I’ll be gone_

_In a day or two_

 

Unlike Leo’s scream that he had adapted from the metal cover, Takumi’s last note was closer to the original song’s falsetto. Either way, it was pretty impressive. Leo probably wouldn’t have managed to hit the note if he had handled it like Takumi did.

During the instrumental break, some of the more excitable members of the audience stood up from their places and started to dance. Elise pulled Sakura up with her and started twirling her around, taking steps along with the beat. Hinoka started banging her head while the rest of the body stayed completely still. The twins waved their arms and legs exaggeratedly in a ridiculous jogging motion that Leo was fairly sure he saw in one of the videos Elise showed him.

When the bridge began, neither Leo or Takumi backed down. The singing battle became as intense as a synthpop duet could possibly become, most of the intensity radiating from the gazes that they locked on each other’s eyes.

 

_Oh, things that you say_

_Is it a life or just to play my worries away_

_You’re all the things I’ve got to remember_

_You’re shying away_

_I’ll be coming for you anyway_

 

In Leo’s humble opinion, Takumi’s swishing ponytail gave him an advantage when it came to stage presence. He also found it amusing how the lyrics of the song didn’t quite fit the situation, as they were both coming for each other rather than one shying away.

To test Takumi’s cooperation skills, he let Takumi have the final chorus for himself, only joining in to sing the small “take on me”s.

 

_Take on me (take on me)_

_Take me on (take on me)_

_I’ll be gone_

_In a day or two_

 

Leo shrugged when Takumi raised an eyebrow at him, but he seemed to have gotten the hint. Takumi imitated what Leo did in the last part, but he decided to join in the last line, which Leo didn’t complain about.

 

_Take on me (take on me)_

_Take me on (take on me)_

_I’ll be gone_

_In a day_

 

The song ended with both of them huffing for air, loud clapping, and a variety of shouting from the siblings, ranging from Elise’s “Nice one, bro bro!” to Hinoka’s “FUCK YEAH THAT’S MY BROTHER!” (and Ryoma amidst that screaming “LANGUAGE”).

The two of them went back to their seats together, laughing lightheartedly. In all honesty, that was the most fun Leo had in a while.

“Thanks for joining in,” Leo said, still grinning wider than what his face muscles were used to. “It really made it easier on me. And more enjoyable.”

“Yeah, you’d better appreciate it. I can’t believe I actually sang tonight – although I guess Hinoka would have probably made me either way.”

“Mm, I can relate to that.” Leo glanced at Elise, who was winking at him consecutively without bothering to be discreet about it, alternating the eye she closed each time she did so.

“But hey, I didn’t know you could sing!” When Takumi placed his arms around his shoulders, Leo snapped out of the high of the song and his body went rigid.

Hoping Takumi didn’t notice, Leo quickly returned the compliment. “Same goes to you. You’ve got quite a nice voice.”

At that, Takumi blushed and started muttering something Leo couldn’t decipher, butLeo payed more attention to how cute Takumi looked rather than what he was saying.

Damn his crush on this prickly boy.

The song chosen to conclude the karaoke night was the obligatory “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the theme song designated for the two families by the twins. When asked about the reasoning, they just shrugged and said it somehow fit them. Leo didn’t disagree – maybe their numbers just helped make the song sound more complete with the harmonization going on.

After sharing farewells, Leo found himself actually looking forward for the next karaoke night. He really had enjoyed singing together with Takumi, and somehow that experience had reminded him that spending time with his family was actually quite pleasant. Maybe he could sing a few more songs next time.

And maybe, just maybe, he could pick out a song with meaningful lyrics and sing it while staring directly at Takumi through the whole thing.

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as me thinking about how Leo is a nerd and he probably blasts rock music and sings along when no one’s home so it's mostly just them having fun sorry there's not much romance
> 
> Here's some important reference links:  
> [Dramatic "da-ran"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlyq22ybsRw)  
> [The Twins' dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvVoY-PTf6s)  
> [And have you guys heard Yuki Kaji (Takumi's seiyuu) sing???](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIOw7zXCexM)  
> [The Hypothetical Song Leo would sing to Takumi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm72hbk4E0c)


End file.
